Abstract
One hundred sixty subjects meeting DSM-III-R criteria for the five major anxiety disorders were compared on the extent to which they reported features characteristic of social phobia. The results indicated that many patients in the anxiety disorder categories experience some degree of social anxiety. The differences between subjects with a primary diagnosis of social phobia and subjects with other anxiety disorders appear to be chiefly quantitative on this feature. Compared to the other anxiety disorders, social phobics report fear and avoidance in response to a greater number of social situations and report greater interference in their lives due to social phobic concerns. Among the anxiety disorders, generalized anxiety disorder appears to be associated with the greatest degree of social anxiety, and simple phobia with the least.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
American Psychiatric Association (1980).Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, ed. 3. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.
American Psychiatrie Association (1987),Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, ed. 3, revised. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.
Amies, P. L., Gelder, M. G., & Shaw, P. M. (1983), Social phobia. A comparative clinical study.British Journal of Psychiatry, 142, 174–179.
Barlow, D. H. (1985). The dimensions of anxiety disorders. In A. H. Tuma & J. Maser (Eds.),Anxiety and the anxiety disorders. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum Associates.
Barlow, D. H. (1988). “Anxiety and its Disorders”. New York: Guilford.
Barlow, D. H., Vermilyea, J., Blanchard, E. B., Verrailyea, B. B., Di Nardo, P. A., & Cerny, J. A. (1985). The phenomenon of panic.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 94, 320–328.
Barlow, D. H., Blanchard, E. B., Vermilyea, J. A., Vermilyea, B. B., & Di Nardo, P. A. (1986a). Generalized anxiety and generalized anxiety disorder: Description and reconceptualization.American Journal of Psychiatry, 143, 40–44.
Barlow, D. H., Di Nardo, P. A., Vermilyea, B. B., Vermilyea, J. A., & Blanchard, E. B. (1986b). Co-morbidity and depression among the anxiety disorders: Issues in diagnosis and classification.The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 174, 63–72.
Bruch, M. A., Heimberg, R. G., Berger, P., & Collins, T. M. (1987).Parental and personal origins of social evaluative threat: Differences between social phobics and agoraphobics (manuscript submitted for publication).
Bryant, B. M., & Trower, P. E. (1974). Social difficulty in a student sample.British Journal of Educational Psychology, 44, 13–21.
Chambless, D. L. (1985). The relationship of severity of agoraphobia to associated psychopathology.Behaviour Research and Therapy, 23, 305–310.
Di Nardo, P. A., O'Brien, G. T., Barlow, D. H., Waddell, M. T., & Blanchard, E. B. (1983). Reliability of DSM-III anxiety disorder categories using a new structured interview.Archives of General Psychiatry, 40, 1070–1074.
Heimberg, R. G., Dodge, C. S., & Becker, R. E. (1987). Social phobia. In L. Michelson & M. Ascher (Eds.),Cognitive behavioral assessment and treatment of anxiety disorders. New York: Guilford Press.
Heimberg, R. G., Dodge, C. S., Hope, D. A., Kennedy, C. R., Zollo, L. J., & Becker, R. E. (1987).Cognitive behavioral group treatment for social phobia: Comparison to a credible placebo control (manuscript submitted for publication).
Marks, I. M. (1969)Fears and phobias. London: Heineman.
Marks, I. M., & Mathews, A. M. (1979). Brief standard self-rating for phobia patients.Behavior, Research and Therapy, 17, 263–267.
Mattick, R. P., & Peters, L. (1988). Treatment of severe social phobia: Effects of guided exposure with and without cognitive restructuring.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology (in press).
Mattick, R.P., & Rapee, R. M. (1986).Carbon dioxide induced panic attacks: A comparison of panic disorder, social phobia and normal controls. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Australian Psychological Society, Townsville, Queensland.
Myers, J. K., Weissman, M. M., Tischler, G. L., Holzer, C. E., III, Leaf, P. J., Orvaschel, H., Anthony, J. C., Boyd, J. H., Burke, J. D., Jr., Kramer, M., & Stoltzman, R. (1984). Six-month prevalance of psychiatric disorders in three communities.Archives of General Psychiatry, 41, 959–967.
Nelson, R. Q., & Barlow, D. H. (1981). Behavioral assessment: Basic strategies and initial procedures. In D. H. Barlow (Ed.),Behavioral assessment of adult disorders. New York: Guilford.
Nyman, D., & Heimberg, R. G. (1985).The diagnostic validity of social phobia. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy, Houston, TX.
Pilkonis, P. A., & Zimbardo, P. G. (1979). The personal and social dynamics of shyness. In C. E. Izard (Ed.),Emotions in personality and psychopathology. New York: Plenum.
Rapee, R. (1985). Distinctions between panic disorder and generalized anxiety disorder: Clinical presentation.Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 19, 227–232.
Rapee, R. M., & Murrell, E. (1988). Predictors of agoraphobic avoidance: An exploratory analysis.Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 2, 203–217.
Ryan, T. A. (1960). Significance tests for multiple comparison of proportions, variances, and other statistics.Psychological Bulletin, 57, 318–328.
Turner, S. M., Beidel, D. C., Dancu, C. V., & Keys, D. J. (1986). Psychopathology of social phobia and comparison to avoidant personality disorder.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 95, 389–394.
Zimbardo, P. G., Pilkonis, P. A., & Norwood, R. M. (1974). The silent prison of shyness. Office of Naval Research Technical Report No. 2-17. Stanford, CA: Stanford University.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rapee, R.M., Sanderson, W.C. & Barlow, D.H. Social phobia features across the DSM-III-R anxiety disorders. J Psychopathol Behav Assess 10, 287–299 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00962552
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00962552